Last week’s announcement of Android for Work solidified BlackBerry’s commitment to being platform agnostic in providing its enterprise services. However, save for BBM, those enterprise services have mostly pertained to the backend, specifically in enterprise mobility management (EMM) tools like BES12.
Today, with the announcement of the BlackBerry Experience Suite, BlackBerry has essentially unbundled all of its core apps and services from BB10, to be used on iOS, Android, and Windows 10.
The BlackBerry Experience Suite is actually comprised of three smaller service bundles, each of which can be purchased individually or together. They include: the BlackBerry Productivity Suite, which contains core BB10 features like BlackBerry Hub, Universal Search, Contacts and Calendar; the BlackBerry Communication Suite, containing WorkLife and SecuSUITE in addition to the BBM products; and the BlackBery Security Suite, containing BES12, Blend, and the company’s tradition EMM tools.
“We will continue to look for opportunities to broaden our software footprint in the market,” said BlackBerry CEO John Chen in a statement. “Our goal is to be wherever our users need and want us, with our software suites, whether that’s on an iPhone or a BlackBerry Classic.”
However, now that the core components of BlackBerry 10 are available across all platforms, only those users who need and want a keyboard and utility belt (or perhaps a square screen) will find an incentive to purchase BlackBerry smartphones. For the past year, it has been clear that BlackBerry, under Chen’s guidance, was deprioritizing hardware, but never has it been truer than today.
BlackBerry Experience Suite will be available later this year. Those interested can visit BlackBerry.com/experience for more information.
03/01/15: This post has been updated to clarify statements made regarding BlackBerry’s current business priorities.
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